Goldblum, Kaos, telling stories

An Irish poet once told me ‘We’re storytellers by nature and that includes gossip. What begins as a short story one end of town is a full length novel by the time it reaches the other end. Everybody loves to add their own bit.’

After half a century among Greeks, their mythical gods in my head are those depicted on ancient artefacts and written about by ancient Greeks. Jeff Goldblum is a longtime favourite, so I happily anticipated him swaggering his usual cool as Zeus in Kaos.

While waiting for Kaos to land, not expecting much, I watched a monster series set during the Japanese occupation of Korea. In it a young woman and her father search for her missing mother only to trace her among hapless victims of a deranged Japanese scientist experimenting on Koreans with no lack of disposable subjects at his disposal. I was hooked. The period feel was perfect, the cultural element lovely, the actors – very watchable, and the story – fantastical fun.

Then Kaos arrived! Critics have lauded this set of interpreted myths, and Goldblum as vain, vengeful Zeus was marvellous. However, after episode three, I felt a but coming on, and it’s a tricky but, no intended disrespect towards acting skills or nationalities, I wasn’t at ease with the casting.

Racist I am not, but it began to feel wrong. Critics praised its original-take brilliance, and a large percentage of viewers may agree. In the past, famous white actors were made up to play Indians or Asians in movies, non-white actors were not given starring roles. Then, time and changes of attitude brought up questions about ‘inappropriate casting’. Now actors of all races can portray their ethnicity, or a raceless, everyday person, not merely typecast bit players.  

One of the great things about Netflix is, it has given its audience such a choice of foreign films. It has also given actors of various origins starring roles. However, if inappropriate casting can be used to further the rights of some actors, why should the reverse also not apply? Goldblum’s star spangles apart, were there no Greek actors available for Kaos?

The diversity of accents also distracted me. I love to hear the tones of Ireland come at me from a movie but Mighty Minos of Crete sounding like an Irish tourist at Knossos? Charlie Covell was obviously working on a subject close to his heart, an intelligent, dark sense of humour evident. And, as said, everybody likes to add their own bit to an already established story, and they don’t get much older than Greek myths, often open to modern variations on their themes and characters.

The story of Prometheus, father of all the arts and sciences, is a great one, his sympathetic feelings towards humankind lands him in trouble with the big Z whose torture he stoically withstands, able to foresee his tormentor’s downfall. The deities of Olympus, as with the Norse gods, knew there would be an end to their existence.

Immortality, apparently as impermanent for them as life is for us. If these ancient, powerful, demanding gods ended up dead dust like the rest of us, do the old gods people worship today still exist or simply the mere idea of them? In myths, they walked among humans, mated with them. See any of that today? Followers believed their prophets were gifted with foresight. Are today’s seers sci-fi writers whose tales depicted dystopian futures akin to what is evolving today?

Societies becoming more fractured, layered, turf war violence, fear of the stranger, starvation, loss of natural resources causing wars, the planet suffering gradual destruction from the greed and corruption of the selfish who feel secure from impact. Romans in the third century BC equated their gods with the Greek gods, Ares is better known as Mars. If a question were to be asked, did any of the gods survive, my answer would be, ‘Yes, the most obvious one – Mars god of war.’